DarkFoxKit: *Looks at the time, and shrugs. Goes to take a shower. Comes back, looks at her PMs, sees a message from ZAFT* ….. O.O *Races to the docs* Hey! I'm here! It's been… what, an hour? ^^'
ZAFT: Meh… life happens. :3 Glad you could get here though. :3
DarkFoxKit: I really need some kind of reminder on our update days, it's way too easy for me to forget, especially on my treatment weeks.
ZAFT: Well, not much longer for that~! :3
DarkFoxKit: Yeah, though it still feels like an eternity sometimes.
Andy: How much longer do you have?
DarkFoxKit: If nothing causes the treatments to get postponed, I'd say about 2 weeks, this one and the next one.
Takuya: That's great! :D
DarkFoxKit: For now, keep praying that nothing goes wrong so this can be over as soon as possible. And we'll finally be back to writing more of this. We're just lucky we have so many chapters in reserve that it didn't affect the update schedule. Oh! There's one more thing I wanted to mention that has to do with our current arc in the story. It might seem a bit odd that we're suddenly focusing more on the Digital side of things, and this character named Tommy. I guess it kinda is, but it shows it is indeed a crossover and that Digimon are also important to the story. We won't do this often though, as we'll mostly be focusing on Danny Phantom's side of things, so enjoy this while you can.
ZAFT: When we do the Digimon side of things, it will be rare, but relevant to the story. That is all I can say without going into spoiler territory. Anyway, on with the chapter~! :3
(Two symbols, one red, and one blue, spin before colliding and flaring with light as they do so, showing the title)
Digital Phantom!
(Shows three forms in shadow before they are revealed to be Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley)
Three worlds, connected side by side
(A swirling green portal is shown, followed by the sky cities of the living world before a computer monitor is zoomed in on, revealing another world of lush greenery through that)
Connections, with many secrets to hide
(Andy Fenton is shown with a small purple fox-like creature, Dorimon, in his arms as Takuya Kanbara appears behind him, a form in shadow behind Takuya himself)
Is one always chosen by fate?
(Danny is shown transforming into his ghost form, Danny Phantom, flying towards a vampiric looking ghost, Vlad Plasmius)
Or can one make their own destiny?
(Andy is shown looking on as his cell-phone transforms into a Digivice, the D-Arc)
Digital Phantom!
(Andy holds up his D-Arc as a heart symbol appears on the screen)
The power is deep inside!
(Takuya holds up his D-Tector before fractal code surrounds him, dissipating as fire erupts from it, revealing him as Agunimon, lunging out from the fire just as Dorimon glows and becomes Dorumon, firing off a metal ball into the distance)
Digital Phantom!
(The metal ball blasts past Vlad Plasmius as he fires off a ghost ray at Andy, who blocks it with his Fenton Rod)
Destiny is unbound!
(The Fenton Rod is smacked away by Vlad, going spinning before Sam, with a small puppy-like creature next to her, reaches up and catches it, a shadowed form with wings appearing behind her, transparent in appearance)
Digital Phantom!
(Sam throws the Fenton Rod to Tucker, who spins it before throwing it at Plasmius, a big bunny-like being with gun-hands appearing behind Tucker, transparent in appearance)
Fight on, without regret
(Shows Takuya looking up from his D-Tector as he makes eye contact with his Human Spirit of Agunimon, who give a smile back and reaches out a hand as Takuya takes it)
Two sides never rest
(Danny is shown reaching for a glowing Digi-Egg, with a shadowed form above it just as an evil version of the shadowed form appears beside Vlad, both transparent in appearance)
Digital Phantom!
(Jazz is shown with the form of Lopmon beside her, a larger, shadowed form behind them both)
Never regret or look back
(Takuya is shown looking up as a ball of fractal code covers his hand, surrounding him before it dissipates to reveal his Fusion form of Aldamon)
Fight on, with victory
(Aldamon fires off a slew of fiery bullets from his cannons, each of those bullets hitting Plasmius before the ghost teleports away, revealing a shadowed form behind him)
Nothing will stand in our way!
(Andy, Dorimon, Danny, Tucker, Terriermon, Sam, Salamon, Jazz, Lopmon, and Takuya all appear with Vlad above them, sneering evilly as all ten look on defiantly)
Digital Phantom!
Chapter 38: An Invasion of Nightmares
JP knew what he had to do as he stood in the middle of town.
The green outline of his first Spirit became visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he held it up. JP then held up his left hand as fractal coding formed around it, his D-Tector held in his other hand. Slamming the device against the ring of coding, he brought the two together. JP then called out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" Coding encircled him as his clothes ripped away and his body became data, the power of the Spirit flowing into him. Blue and yellow armor formed on his body as he grew in height and strength. On his back, wings formed before they were covered by two halves of a hard shell and on his head, a horn grew. His eyes became green as a faceplate covered his mouth and he felt the power of thunder flowing into his body. He landed, slamming his fists together as he cried out his name. "Beetlemon!"
Now that he was Beetlemon, JP stood in the center of the Autumn Leaf Fair. The Digimon around him quickly went inside their houses or left the area, not wanting to get caught up in what the Legendary Warrior was planning to do.
"Alright, one Legendary Warrior right here, in the open! You know, in case someone wants to fight, or maybe just chat or something," Beetlemon spoke up loudly, making sure everyone could hear him.
Out of sight, five humans laid in waiting to spring out when a Tapirmon showed up, if one even did.
Takuya and Tommy were together on one side of the area Beetlemon was in, while Koji and Koichi were hiding on another. Dash was hiding in a barrel that was near the middle of the area.
"You think a Tapirmon would show up?" Tommy whispered to Takuya as they were watching Beetlemon from their hiding places.
Takuya frowned. "It's possible, but I'm not sure. We'll just have to see if they come."
"Jeez, could he make it anymore obvious that he's waiting for a Tapirmon?" Koji grumbled to Koichi from their hiding spots.
"Well, we don't have any other ideas." Koichi pointed out, albeit with a sweatdrop running down the side of his head.
"He could still be more subtle about it…" Koji sighed.
Dash was sighing to himself. "Why do I have to hide in this barrel? It smells like week-old fish in here…"
Beetlemon put his hands on his hips, trying to figure out a way to draw a Tapirmon out. "Maybe you would like for me to show off a little bit of my power, right? I can totally do that!"
Takuya groaned. "Are these Tapirmon onto us or something? You think they would be tempted by another Legendary Warrior appearing by now…"
Beetlemon was showing electricity spark around his body, hoping to try to be as flashy as possible.
Dash looked through the peephole of the barrel, and he noticed something moving towards Beetlemon from the shadows. It was difficult to see, but there was definitely something there. Dash held up his D-Tector to contact the other 4 humans. "I think I see something moving towards Beetlemon. It's in his shadow."
Takuya's symbol of Flame showed up on the screen. "Keep an eye on it and get ready to jump it if it gets close to him."
"There's also something moving in the air getting closer to Beetlemon," Koji's symbol of Light showed up on screen.
"There's more movement coming from the side of Beetlemon as well," Koichi warned as his symbol of Darkness came up.
"Guys… I think our bait worked a little too well… we didn't attract just one Tapirmon…" Tommy warned, his symbol of Ice coming on.
Dash felt like smacking his face with his hand. "Oh boy… This is gonna be a bit hard…"
Beetlemon finally stopped using his electrical surge and sighed. "Maybe I should just call it a day."
"What should we do?" Takuya frowned, looking at D-Tector. "We don't know how many there are!"
"Calm down. Okay, new plan, we'll cause a distraction. We'll try to keep the Tapirmon off of Beetlemon while you and Tommy try to knock one out and get it away from the others. Dash, you help us distract the Tapirmon," Koji instructed.
Dash looked down at his D-Tector. "Okay. But how will we do that?"
"Just do something that will get their attention," Koichi replied.
Dash wracked his brain for something, before something did indeed come to mind. I'm going to hate myself for this…
Just as the hidden Tapirmon were about to use their attack on the unsuspecting Beetlemon, Dash was suddenly in front of Beetlemon, wearing a hula skirt, a flower necklace, and a flower on his head.
"Oh-wow!" Dash began dancing, doing the hula.
Beetlemon, Tommy, and Takuya were all staring in shock and disbelief.
Koichi and Koji both blinked, the older twin trying to hide his snickering while the younger twin was contemplating smacking his head against the wall of the building they were hiding behind.
"Oh gosh…" Koji groaned.
"Well… it's working," Koichi said, trying not to laugh.
The movements had all stopped, and were now coming out of hiding as they were looking at Dash pretty much making a fool of himself. There were about 9 Tapirmon altogether.
Takuya saw how many Tapirmon there were. "Wow… That's a lot of Tapirmon…" He noted.
"Yeah…" Tommy agreed. "We should aim for the one closest to us when Koji and Koichi get in there."
Koichi looked at his twin. "I think we should Spirit Evolve. There are too many Tapirmon for Dash and Beetlemon to handle alone."
"Right. But we better watch ourselves, don't get in too close to them if you can help it," Koji warned, taking out his D-Tector.
Koichi smirked. "I was going to say the same to you, Koji." He took out his own D-Tector.
Koji held up his D-Tector, just as the white outline of his Beast Spirit roared and appeared on the screen. He held up his hand and a ball of fractal code appeared around his left hand. He then brought the D-Tector and the coding together, scanning the code with his D-Tector. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" As soon as he said that, coding surrounded Koji and he cried out as his body became more quadruped and lupine in form. White and gold armor formed on his body as he gained golden wings that were as sharp as blades, and his face became more like a wolf's. He landed, crying out his name as his blade-wings folded close to his body. "KendoGarurumon!"
Koichi then held up his own D-Tector as the purple outline of his own Beast Spirit roared and appeared on the screen. He held up his left hand and a ball of fractal code formed around it before he brought it to his D-Tector, running the code across the scanner. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" As soon as he cried that out, coding surrounded the older twin's form. Koichi cried out as his body became more quadruped like his twin's, only his body became more feline in appearance, with dark armor forming on his body. Emitters of some kind appeared on his armor as well before he landed, crying out his name. "JagerLowemon!"
The two quadruped beasts ran into the pack of 9 Tapirmon, allowing Dash to finally stop his hula dancing. This caused the Tapirmon to scatter around.
"Whoa! That's a lot of Tapirmon!" Beetlemon noted.
"Don't get hit by their Nightmare Syndrome!" KendoGarurumon warned.
"Be on the lookout for more that might be hiding too," JagerLowemon warned.
KendoGarurumon looked around. "This is going to be a bit difficult…"
The Tapirmon looked at them with greed in their eyes. They began to smirk at them.
"We thought we were getting one Legendary Warrior, but it looks like we're getting four for the price of one~" One Tapirmon said.
KendoGarurumon bared his teeth before his golden wing blades snapped open. "Let's see if you can take us! Howling Star!" As soon as he said that, the wheels on the back of his legs snapped down and he began to move at high speed towards the Tapirmon that was closest to Beetlemon's left.
The Tapirmon quickly shot out a dark cloud of energy at the incoming KendoGarurumon. "Nightmare Syndrome!"
Seeing this, KendoGarurumon swerved himself to the side, barely avoiding the Nightmare Syndrome, almost crashing into a building in the process.
Coming to a halt, KendoGarurumon looked back. "That was close…"
"What did I tell you about getting too close?" JagerLoweemon grumbled.
KendoGarurumon growled. "Looks like close range is out then…"
"Thunder Fist!" Beetlemon gathered electricity to his fists before slamming them down on the ground, creating the electricity to discharge at the Tapirmon.
6 Tapirmon were able to fly away to avoid the electricity, but 3 were hit by it. They let out a scream before they staggered back.
"Okay, Tommy's now's our chance!" Takuya spoke up, seeing that a few of the Tapirmon were weakened. "Let's get the one closest to us."
As soon as he said that, Takuya jumped out on the closest Tapirmon, with Tommy right behind him.
"Ebony Blast!" JagerLoweemon fired a black spirit at some of the Tapirmon, mostly to keep them away.
"Lupine Laser!" KendoGarurumon shot out a light beam from his mouth at something from behind, revealing even more Tapirmon was approaching them. "We need to hurry and get out of here, more are starting to show up!"
"Dash! Help us!" Takuya yelled as he and Tommy ran past Dash, who was taking off his hula costume.
"R-right!" Dash followed the two quickly to the nearest wounded Tapirmon.
The Tapirmon hissed at them, while it was injured, it was still conscious. It was about to fire a Nightmare Syndrome when Takuya reached out and shut its mouth with his hands. "Oh no you don't!"
Tommy jumped and grabbed the clouds that were the Tapirmon's legs, weighing it down. "Hurry, Dash, knock it out!"
Dash did just that with a punch to the face, but he felt the words were familiar. How is it that Tommy's voice is similar to Calumon's? I remember Calumon saying something very similar to me when we encountered that Drimogemon...
The Tapirmon was knocked out. Dash, being the strongest of the group human-wise, picked it up and lugged it over his shoulder.
Takuya finally looked at the group. "We have a Tapirmon! Let's move!"
"Good, let's get the heck out of here!" Beetlemon agreed.
"Get out? Where do you think you could run off to?" A sinister voice spoke up.
Looking back, the Legendary Warriors were shocked to see a Digimon none of them had seen before. It was black in the body with what were sheep horns on its head, and the body was covered in what looked like wool. The hands were similar to hooves, and it had tentacle-like appendages on the lower part of its body. It had a face that looked vaguely human-like, but with some sheep-like features as well, and the eyes were a purple color.
"W-what is that!?" Dash yelped.
The other Legendary Warriors took a few steps back, they all had a bad feeling.
"Hello there, Legendary Warriors. You may call me… Dreammon, yes, that seems appropriate," The Digimon stated. "I am… a manifestation of dreams and nightmares. I control dreams, I gain power from nightmares. I also like hearing people moan and suffer as they try desperately to fight back against their own inner fears."
The Tapirmon all flew up to Dreammon, acting like a hivemind.
KendoGarurumon growled lowly in the back of his throat. "So this must be the one behind this crisis…"
"Heh, these Tapirmon can't help but obey me. The second I came into this world, they lost all will of their own and belonged to me. They are Digimon made by dreams, just like me after all, we have a kinship that no other could possibly understand," Dreammon stated.
JagerLowemon hissed like a large cat. "This isn't good… We need to scram, like now!"
Dreammon smirked as the Legendary Warriors began running.
"You won't be able to escape me forever. For every individual that is hit with one of my Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome, there's a piece of me inside them. I will be everywhere, you will not be able to escape. And soon, this whole Digital World will be one big dream, and my paradise. And my creator will have to acknowledge my successes then." Dreammon grinned a wide smile.
Takuya heard that, but he didn't ponder it at the moment. They had to get to Seraphimon's castle before this thing had them hit by a Nightmare Syndrome as well.
KendoGarurumon, JagerLoweemon, and Beetlemon quickly began using their long range attacks at Dreammon and his Tapirmon army, hoping to slow them down while they made their escape.
Dreammon just laughed as he began to spread out his tentacles. "Spread out the Nightmare Syndrome, cover this entire area in a nightmare void!"
"C'mon! We have to get back to the castle!" Takuya yelled as they continued to run.
"Nightmare Syndrome!"
All the Tapirmon began to combine and spread their dark cloud of nightmares, it began to cover the entire town. Nobody was safe from it, not even those inside their houses. The energy began to flow into the cracks of the doors, and through the window's glasses. The Digimon all began screaming as many were falling victim to the nightmares while others were desperately trying to get away.
"We're never going to make it at this rate!" Tommy yelled, seeing that the big cloud of Nightmare Syndrome was spreading faster than they were running.
"Yes we will!" Dash held out his D-Tector. Dash took out his D-Tector as the dark green Beast Spirit roared before appearing on the screen of the tan and brown device. He invoked the ball of fractal coding on his hand before swiping the D-Tector across the coding. "EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION!" Dash cried out as the coding surrounded his body. He could feel his skin becoming bark, with the leaves forming on his back. A tail sprouted from his spine as his body took on a quadruped form, and the leaves around his neck formed as well. Finally, the coding vanished as he landed, swishing his tail around before calling out his Beast Spirit name. "PETALDRAMON!"
"All of you grab hold of me!" Petaldramon quickly instructed.
The rest of the group did just that, with those who had Spirit Evolved earlier reverting back to their human forms. Koji, Koichi, and JP each grabbed onto Petaldramon as soon as they were human again. Takuya and Tommy did the same, while still holding onto the Tapirmon as well.
"Hold on tight! It's going to be a rough ride!" Petaldramon warned before he jumped and dived underground, much like a Drimogemon, but without the drill.
Petaldramon spread out his roots in the ground, digging away the dirt and rocks, moving as quickly as he could while also growing trees over the hole he made to try to block out the Nightmare Syndrome.
Unfortunately, one stray dark cloud managed to get through before Petaldramon could close up the hole completely, and was going after them.
"Crap! There's a cloud following us!" Takuya yelped.
"Nothing I can do except keep going!" Petaldramon said back.
The others looked back in worry, seeing the Nightmare Syndrome was getting closer and closer to them.
"Can't we blast it or something?" JP asked, seeing that it was likely going to catch them before Petaldramon could get them away from it.
Takuya looked back at the cloud still chasing them. "I think we can. Leave it to me." He held out his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"
Now evolved, Agunimon attacked the Nightmare Syndrome. "Pyro Darts!" The small bits of flame flew at the cloud.
The Nightmare Syndrome, however, dodged his attacks like a slippery fast snake. It made itself thin, making it harder to hit as well.
"Is that thing sentient!?" Tommy yelped, seeing how it moved.
"So much for that plan…" Agunimon growled. "How did a Nightmare Syndrome become able to do that?!"
The Nightmare Syndrome suddenly disappeared.
"Eh? Where'd it go?" Koichi asked.
"Did it just cease to exist because it was too far from the owner?" Koji questioned as the group looked around on Petaldramon's back.
JP caught movement at the corner of his eye, and saw the Nightmare Syndrome to the left of Agunimon. "Takuya! Look out!"
JP jumped and pushed Agunimon away just as the Nightmare Syndrome went into JP's ear, quickly going into his mind.
Agunimon fell to Petaldramon's back, only to see the Nightmare Syndrome going into JP. "No! JP!"
"JP!" Koji, Koichi, and Tommy all shouted as well.
JP fell onto Petaldramon's back, who couldn't look back to see what was going on due to going through the tunnel. "What's happening back there!?"
JP grabbed his head and was tossing and turning. "No! No! Get out of my head!"
Agunimon moved to JP's side. "JP, you have to fight it!"
"No, this can't happen to you too!" Tommy cried, unable to hold back the tears.
JP was still struggling, but he was quickly losing the fight. Then suddenly, he stopped struggling. His body relaxed.
"JP?" Agunimon and Tommy asked.
"Get away from him!" The twins frantically said.
Koji grabbed Agunimon's arm and pulled him away while Koichi grabbed Tommy's arms and quickly pulled him away as well.
JP opened his eyes, they were glazed over. "You… were supposed to be my friends…"
"No…" Agunimon murmured, seeing how JP's eyes were now glazed over.
Everyone backed away as JP started to walk toward them. "We were supposed to have each other's backs… how could you turn your back on me when I needed you the most?"
"Petaldramon! Get us to the surface now!" Koji called out frantically.
"You got it!" Petaldramon said as he began to tunnel towards the surface.
"JP! Listen to us! We are friends! You're just having a nightmare right now! Whatever it is you're seeing, it isn't real!" Agunimon shouted, desperately hoping to reach JP.
"Shut it, you! I can never trust you again!" JP snapped, hissing at Agunimon with venom.
Hearing that, Agunimon felt his heart clench. "No… It's not like that… You're only having a nightmare! It isn't real!"
"You can't reason with him right now, Takuya! We have to knock him out!" Koji stated.
Agunimon frowned before he sighed. "I'm sorry, JP…"
JP growled as he clenched his D-Tector. Before Agunimon could do anything, JP had Spirit Evolved into Beetlemon.
"Not half as sorry as you will be when I'm through with you, traitor!" Beetlemon snapped, lighting gathering in his fist.
Agunimon didn't give him the chance to attack though, as he rushed in as quickly as he could, a fist drawn back. "Not this time!"
As soon as Petaldramon reached the surface, there was an explosion of lightning and fire. Agunimon and Koji were thrown back to one side, while Beetlemon, Tommy, and Koichi were thrown back to the other. Petaldramon hissed as he fell head first into the snow.
Tommy and Koichi sat up quickly, and quickly scrambled back when they saw Beetlemon was still conscious.
"Beetlemon is a tank! It's going to take a lot to knock him out!" Koichi yelled, trying to get Tommy away from Beetlemon.
Agunimon hissed under his breath. "Damn… I forgot about how much he could take in terms of punishment…"
"You're all going down!" Beetlemon growled before fractal code surrounded him, making him bigger. Everyone paled when they saw what he was doing.
"Crap… He's going for his Beast Spirit!" Agunimon exclaimed.
"Slide Evolution! MetalKabuterimon!" MetalKabuterimon emerged, and quickly aimed his cannons at his friends. "Bolo Thunder!"
Balls of electricity fired from the cannons. Thinking fast, Agunimon grabbed Koji and leapt to the side to avoid the attack, which was coming his way. He landed and looked back. "If he wants to go at it Beast to Beast, I can give him that!"
Then Agunimon heard Tommy and Koichi screaming. MetalKabuterimon had aimed for them as well, and they weren't in their Digimon forms.
"TOMMY!" Agunimon screamed.
"KOICHI!" Koji shouted.
Petaldramon quickly got in front of the two humans, taking the attack himself head on.
Agunimon saw that and couldn't help but be worried for Dash. "DASH! NO!"
Petaldramon groaned, his chest, which had taken the hit, was burnt pretty badly. "Don't worry about me… just knock him out, please."
Petaldramon took some leaves from his neck and began to rub them against his chest.
Agunimon looked back at MetalKabuterimon, his eyes holding an icy glint. "Alright… That's it!" Fractal code surrounded him as he went to his Beast Spirit. "Slide Evolution! BurningGreymon!" The code dispersed, revealing the Beast Warrior of Flame.
Now as his own Beast Spirit, BurningGreymon tapped into his own element. "Time to end this! Crimson Fanger!" Fire enveloped him as he flew at MetalKabuterimon in a charging tackle.
"Gigantic Impact!" Using his tractor-like feet, he charged at BurningGreymon head on, both giant beasts tackling each other head to head.
BurningGreymon could see he was heating up MetalKabuterimon's armor quickly, however, that wasn't stopping MetalKabuterimon's head cannon from aiming at his face and powering up another move. "Electron Cannon!"
"Move, Takuya!" Tommy shouted fearfully for his big brotherly figure.
However, BurningGreymon was not letting up on the attack. He drew back a three-clawed fist and punched MetalKabuterimon in the face before beginning to push his cannon upwards. All the while, flames surrounded the two Digimon, BurningGreymon hoping that his own endurance and tolerance for high heat would win out in the end. MetalKabuterimon's attack ended up going up in the sky.
MetalKabuterimon finally decided enough was enough and used his tractor legs to move backwards, getting away from BurningGreymon and his flames.
"You won't… hurt me… anymore…" MetalKabuterimon panted, clearly tired and hurt.
BurningGreymon just stood there in the flames. "I'm sorry, JP, but I have to do this." He flared his wings before doing another charging tackle. "Drag Fanger!" He was coated in flames again and charged.
"Electron Cannon!" MetalKabuterimon fired an electric beam from his head cannon at the incoming BurningGreymon.
Tommy tried to move in and to Spirit Evolve himself, but Koji and Koichi kept holding him back.
"What are you doing? We have to help him!" Tommy snapped at the twins.
"We know, but this is too dangerous, even for us." Koji said seriously. "The flames are too hot, even for you."
"They don't need to keep fighting like this!" Tommy cried out. "We can stop it! I can stop it! Please! They don't need to keep hurting each other like this!"
Tommy didn't mean to, but he lost control of his emotions and he started crying as he fell to his knees. Koichi bent down to hug and try to comfort the crying boy.
"I know it's hard, but… We can't help it. JP won't listen to reason, and he is fighting us. We need to act and take him out because he isn't making this easy." Koichi said gently. He then frowned a bit. "Do you have some kind of plan or something? Because you said we can stop it..."
Tommy tried to speak, but he couldn't get a word in due to crying.
BurningGreymon let out a shout of pain as the Electron Cannon hit him, but he was determined to keep going. Despite being hurt, BurningGreymon flew through the smoke of the explosion of the attack and slammed himself into MetalKabuterimon. MetalKabuterimon actually flipped onto his back on the snow. The cold snow that got on his very heated armor began to melt, though it also started rusting the armor.
MetalKabuterimon tried to get up, but BurningGreymon put a foot on his chest. The rusted part of MetalKabuterimon's armor began to crack.
"It's over, JP… please stop," BurningGreymon said softly.
"I won't… forget this…" MetalKabuterimon growled before he passed out.
Fractal code surrounded MetalKabuterimon before shrinking him down. BurningGreymon quickly lifted up his foot as JP returned to his human form, asleep.
Panting, fractal code surrounded BurningGreymon as he reverted back to his Human Spirit of Agunimon. Kneeling down, Agunimon picked up JP into his arms before standing back up. "I'm sorry, JP…"
"Glad to see you're still in one piece," Koji commented.
Petaldramon took the leaves off of his chest, revealing that most of the burns were healed now. Tommy managed to stop crying, though he didn't say anything as Koichi let him go.
"Great… Now another one of us is under the influence of the Nightmare Syndrome…" Koji grumbled as Agunimon walked over to them with the sleeping JP.
"We didn't know that the Nightmare Syndrome would suddenly gain sentience." Koichi frowned. "It's one thing if it was just the Tapirmon firing their attacks at us, but if the attacks could home in on us themselves while also dodging our attacks, then this just became close to impossible."
"That Dreammon might've been what was controlling that Nightmare Syndrome," Koji pointed out. "There's no way a normal Nightmare Syndrome, no matter how powerful, would've been able to do that."
Agunimon frowned as he looked at Koji. "Yeah… And that Dreammon… He said something that has been bugging me…"
"He said a lot of things that bugged all of us, so you're going to have to be specific," Koji stated.
Agunimon sighed. "He said something about a creator… Does that mean Dreammon is not a normal Digimon, or did he just say it to throw us off?"
"That's a good question," Koichi noted. "But unfortunately we know about as much as you do."
"We should get out of here soon. I managed to get us away from the city, but it's only a matter of time before that Dreammon comes over here as well. Then we'll all be trapped like JP." Petaldramon frowned before he looked around, noticing something was missing. "Um… so… where's that Tapirmon we knocked out?"
Agunimon looked around, before groaning. "Aw c'mon… The thing escaped?! Now what do we do?!"
"So you mean to tell me that we lost JP for nothing!?" Petaldramon frowned.
"It must've woken up during the battle and flew away when we were all distracted…" Koichi frowned.
Agunimon frowned as he looked down. "I hate to admit it, but we may have…" He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Now what do we do?!"
"Let's just head back to Seraphimon's castle, we'll think of a new plan there," Petaldramon sighed.
Agunimon sighed, before noticing that Tommy had been pretty quiet. He looked down at Tommy. "Tommy? Are you okay?"
Tommy rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, sniffling a little bit. "Y-yeah… I'm… well, I'll be okay…"
Agunimon, for some reason, felt a bit guilty, seeing Tommy upset. "... Is… Is it because JP and I fought…?"
"You… you had to fight… there wasn't much you could've done…" Tommy said softly, not looking up.
Seeing this made the Warrior of Flame's heart clench in guilt and sympathy. "I… If it makes it any easier… I didn't want to fight either… But I was left with no choice…"
"I know…" Tommy sighed. "But… next time… don't take everything on your own if you don't need to."
Agunimon nodded. "I won't next time."
Koji looked up, seeing the sky was starting to fill with clouds, clouds of Tapirmon. "We better travel underground for now, I doubt flying is going to be safe at the moment."
"I'm ready to go when you guys are," Petaldramon stated.
"Then let's go back to the castle." Agunimon said as he made his way towards Petaldramon, still holding onto JP. "We need to find out what we can from what little we know."
Once everyone was on Petaldramon, Agunimon reverted back to being human again. Petaldramon then dug underground.
While Petaldramon was tunneling through the ground, everyone on his back sat in silence. Koji and Koichi appeared to be contemplating something. Takuya had his arms crossed as he was thinking as well before he noticed Tommy moving closer to the sleeping JP. JP had his teeth gritted and his eyes shut tight, groaning in his sleep. Tommy looked down at his D-Tector for a moment, seeming tempted to do something.
Takuya raised an eyebrow at seeing the look on Tommy's face. What is Tommy thinking about doing?
For a split second, Takuya thought he saw something red flashed on Tommy's D-Tector screen, which was odd since none of Tommy's Spirits had red on them, but it disappeared before Takuya could see what it was. Tommy closed his eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh, then he put his D-Tector into his pocket.
That's odd… What was that I just saw? Takuya thought in confusion. Or was I just imagining things?
"Tommy?" Takuya spoke up, getting the young boy's attention. "What were you trying to do?"
Tommy frowned before shaking his head. "I don't know. I guess I was hoping to find a way to help JP… get him to wake up, get the Nightmare Syndrome out of him, snap him out of it, or do… something…"
Takuya sighed. "Don't worry… We'll find a way to do that… It's just going to take some time, that's all."
"I should've kept an eye on that Tapirmon… that was our key to a cure…" Tommy said softly.
Takuya sighed. "It's not your fault. No one knew that what occurred would happen."
"Lamenting it now won't do us any good anyways," Koichi spoke up. "All we can do is try again and hope we can get a Tapirmon back with us this time."
"Preferably not losing another Legendary Warrior to the Nightmare Syndrome in the process," Koji added.
Takuya gave Koji a deadpan look. "Way to ruin the mood, Koji…"
"Some moods should be ruined, Takuya," Koji huffed.
Takuya sighed. "Okay, let's focus on the objective, which is to recapture Tapirmon now."
"It might be best to go back to the TV Forest and try again there. There might be more places for the Tapirmon to hide, but it also lets us hide as well. The Tapirmon don't seem to gather in large numbers around areas where not a lot of Digimon are living in anyways, so it'll give us an easier time to deal with the pack," Tommy suggested.
Koichi nodded. "Actually, that's a good idea. And we can use the forest to our advantage too."
Takuya looked back at Tommy. "Nice suggestion, buddy." He said with a grin.
Tommy blushed a little.
"We should go there at night, that'll probably be the best time to hunt down Tapirmon," Koji suggested. "Have them think we're just some travelers, completely unaware of them, while we wait for them to make a move."
Takuya nodded. "Yeah, that could work, except that Dreammon knows the Legendary Warriors are in the Digital World. Even if we tried that, it may not work. I don't know if Dreammon knows we are humans who can become Digimon, but I don't want to take the chance he knows that."
"So what do you suggest then? Burn down the forest until we find the Tapirmon?" Koji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No…" Takuya said. "I was just pointing out the possibility of that."
"Even if they knew who we were, it doesn't really make too much of a difference," Koichi pointed out. "The Tapirmon won't show themselves to us until they decide to try to use their Nightmare Syndrome on us."
Koji frowned. "Yeah, that is true. But we have to find a way to get a Tapirmon. That could be the key to overcoming the Nightmare Syndrome."
"Koji has the right idea," Tommy spoke up.
"He does?" Takuya questioned, surprised.
"The Tapirmon won't show themselves, and they will try to hit one of us with another Nightmare Syndrome anyways. Acting like we don't know they're there will give us a chance to catch them off guard. We could also have one or two of us hidden while the Tapirmon are focused on the others, then we strike before they strike," Tommy explained.
"So who will be the ones to hide?" Takuya asked.
"That depends on who wants to stay hidden all night long," Tommy remarked. "I can-"
"Perhaps I should do it. I am the Warrior of Darkness, I can hide myself pretty well in the shadows, it is my element after all," Koichi volunteered, interrupting Tommy.
Koji looked at his twin. "Actually, that makes sense. It would be best if at least Koichi does it."
"I agree, Koichi is probably our best choice." Takuya nodded.
Tommy sighed. "Maybe I could be Koichi's back-up?"
Takuya frowned. "Are you sure, Tommy? You look like you hadn't slept much, I'd rather you didn't have to be on the look-out all night."
"You do realize that the rest of us are bait, don't you, Takuya?" Tommy pointed out.
Takuya blinked. "Uh… Yeah, I think it would be best then if you joined Koichi as his back-up then." He then blinked again before chuckling a bit. "You know, you're similar to my cousin Andy in a way, with your planning and all."
"Andy, huh?" Tommy commented. He's the one with the Dorumon, wasn't he? "That's a compliment, right?"
"Yeah, it is. Andy likes to think more than his brother Danny, who is more prone to just acting on impulse at times." Takuya explained.
"So you mean, Danny acts like you?" Koji smirked at Takuya.
Takuya blushed. "No! He… is more… Well… I guess he does in a way…"
While Takuya was blushing, and the Yin-Yang twins were laughing, JP was starting to get up again. His glazed eyes said he was still in a nightmare. Tommy looked at JP, before he held up his D-Tector, showing the upside down red triangle.
"Lay down and go back to sleep, JP…" Tommy whispered.
The D-Tector glowed slightly as the same red upside down triangle appeared on Tommy's forehead.
"Don't Spirit Evolve. Don't cause trouble. We are going to help you," Tommy said softly.
JP closed his eyes and laid back down again. Tommy sighed in relief as the triangle disappeared on both his forehead and his D-Tector.
It took the group a long time to get back to Seraphimon's castle. Going through underground took longer than flying or taking a Trailmon. It was evening by the time they got back. The sun was already going down in the horizon. Dash, who had reverted back to his human form, was exhausted. Koji and Koichi had the jock lean against them while they walked through the gate. Takuya was currently Agunimon, carrying the still sleeping JP over his shoulder while Tommy followed him.
"Oh-no, another Legendary Warrior had fallen to the Nightmare Syndrome." Kyuubimon frowned when she saw them carrying JP.
Agunimon sighed. "Yeah, he did… And it was to save me from that very fate no less."
"Let's get him to the medical room," Kyuubimon said. "We've moved Zoe to the private medical room, we'll be taking JP there as well."
Agunimon nodded and followed Kyuubimon to the medical room in question. "Have you made any progress on Zoe's condition yet?"
"We did find something out…" Kyuubimon frowned. "But I'm not sure if it's good. The Nightmare Syndrome seems to affect humans a little differently from Digimon."
Agunimon blinked. "How so?"
"There's an entity in the Nightmare Syndrome inside Zoe's mind that we don't see in the Digimon," Kyuubimon stated. "It's likely why she can't wake up. She's been fighting with this entity as well."
Agunimon then remembered how Dreammon said there would be a piece of him inside the Nightmare Syndrome.
Agunimon looked at Kyuubimon. "While we were at the Autumn Leaf Fair, we came across a Digimon we never heard of before. It calls itself Dreammon and he claims to be the one behind all of this. He mentioned a piece of him was inside each Nightmare Syndrome attack."
"I see… you'll have to give us the details when we meet up with Sorcermon in the private medical room," Kyuubimon remarked.
Everyone nodded before they followed Kyuubimon.
Meanwhile, back at Amity Park in Fenton Works, Andy and Dorimon were staring at Takuya, or more specifically, Takuya 2. "So let me get this straight… you, and the Dash here, are just copies of the real Takuya and Dash? And you two were sent here to cover for them?"
"That's right." Takuya 2 explained. "It's only until they get back."
"Right…" Andy sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "This is so weird…"
"Yeah… I sense a bunch of data and magic coming from you. While Takuya had some data on him, I don't sense flesh and blood on you, it's weird. You're more Digimon than Takuya's Digimon forms are," Dorimon remarked.
"That's because I was made from Sorcermon's magic and the data of the Digital World." Takuya 2 replied.
"Do you think Danny will notice?" Andy asked.
Danny suddenly barged into Takuya's room. "Andy! I sense a Digimon! … Takuya?"
"I believe the answer to my question is 'yes'," Andy groaned.
Danny blinked as he eyed Takuya. "Okay, I know you can Spirit Evolve, but there's no way your Spirits would make me sense you as a Digimon when you're human, Takuya." He then blinked. "Or would they?"
"No, they wouldn't," Dorimon chuckled.
"Danny, meet Takuya 2, a copy Sorcermon made of Takuya to help cover for him while he's doing important Legendary Warrior business in the Digital World," Andy introduced.
Danny blinked as he looked at Andy. "Sorcermon did this? I had no idea he could do that."
"Neither did I," Andy muttered.
"But this does make things easier, doesn't it?" Dorimon said. "Now we don't have to keep covering for Takuya and Dash."
"Yeah, but I'm going to give them one more call just to be sure they're okay before we turn in for the night," Andy sighed.
Danny chuckled. "You do that, bro. I will make sure Takuya 2 here doesn't get into trouble."
Andy was about to make the call on his D-Arc when suddenly a blue mist came out of Danny's mouth, Dorimon began to quiver, and even Takuya 2 frowned as he looked up.
Danny looked around. "Oh no… Don't tell me ghosts are here…"
Andy looked out the window, and saw ghosts flying around the city. There were a lot of ghosts too, not just one or two.
"Uh… Danny… we might need more than one Fenton Thermos for this…" Andy paled.
Danny looked out the window as well and paled as well. "Oh crap… What a time for Takuya to be in the Digital World right now…"
"I've never seen so many ghosts attacking at once!" Dorimon frowned. "They couldn't have come from the portal downstairs, we would've noticed!"
"I'd help you guys… but I wasn't made to Spirit Evolve. I also don't have the Spirits," Takuya 2 sighed.
Danny frowned. "Oh, that's just great…" He then sighed. "Well, at least we can teach you to use some Fenton weapons, I guess…"
"I don't think we have time. There are too many ghosts out there. They could kill people if we don't take them out now!" Andy spoke up. "Dorimon!"
"Yeah!" Dorimon hopped off of Andy's head before digivolving into Dorumon.
"I'll get Jazz, you call up Tucker and Sam!" Andy quickly instructed.
Danny nodded. "Right!" He ran to get his cell phone.
Danny, in his ghost form, Tucker, Sam, Jazz, Andy, and their Digimon partners, were all outside of Fenton Works. All of these ghosts looked like some kind of armor-wearing soldier ghosts. None of them had feet, they all had those ghostly tails.
"There are so many ghosts, even more than the last time!" Tucker frowned.
"Way more, how did they get here? I doubt they all could've come from the portal without any of you noticing," Sam questioned.
Danny looked at Sam. "Dorimon said the same thing."
"It doesn't matter how they got here. The fact is they're here and we need to stop them!" Lopmon spoke up.
"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Jazz agreed, taking out the Fenton Rod.
Terriermon frowned. "But how can we battle so many ghosts? Even we Digimon have limits to how long we can fight and how many foes we can handle."
"We'll just have to try. Conserve your energy, don't digivolve unless you absolutely have to," Andy instructed.
"Lopmon, can't you and Jazz become Cherubimon again?" Salamon asked.
"No…" Lopmon frowned, shaking his head. "I don't even know how we did it the first time."
Terriermon frowned. "Well, that's just great, and right when we could use it too."
Lopmon spun around, slapping Terriermon with his ears. "If I need that kind of input, I would let you know."
Terriermon grinned. "I love you too, Lopmon~"
Jazz and Tucker stared at the two rabbit Digimon.
"As a sibling! Sheesh, get your minds out of the gutter," Terriermon groaned.
"Can we please focus? Ugh… I'm going to need a bigger Thermos," Danny sighed.
Suddenly one of the soldier ghosts tackled the ghost boy into a wall.
"And a paramedic!" Tucker added.
"Come on, let's help him out!" Andy called out.
Everyone spread out to try to fight with the army of soldier ghosts with their Fenton Gadgets and their Digimon partners.
Danny groaned as he looked up, staring at the ghostly soldier. "Uh… Hi…?"
Jazz ran at the ghost soldier. "Stay away from him!" She had her Fenton Rod held back in what could only be described as like a batter's swing.
The rod clanged against the ghost's armor. The ghost growled as he looked at Jazz.
"Blazing Ice!" Lopmon shot out an ice ball at the ghost's face, which knocked him off of Danny. "Be careful, don't aim at their armor. It's ghostly armor, they're tough."
Jazz nodded. "Okay. I'll aim for the face or the tail then." She turned around and swung the Fenton Rod at the tail of another ghostly guard, pressing the button to charge up the electrical current that would zap a ghost at the same time.
Andy and Dorumon were fighting with the ghosts near the Nasty Burger. Tucker and Terriermon were duking it out around the arcade. And finally, Sam and Salamon were battling the ghosts in Central Park.
Danny flew up, hoping that his friends, sister, and brother will be able to handle themselves. Danny had to handle the ghosts in the sky since none of them could reach the ghosts up here unless Dorumon digivolved, but Andy didn't want him to digivolve to preserve as much energy as possible. Danny couldn't blame him, this was going to be a long, long night.
The several ghost soldiers in the sky began to fly at Danny while Danny's fists glowed brightly with ecto energy. "Bring it on!"
Takuya frowned as he was trying to call Andy, but he wasn't getting any answer. He tried calling Jazz, Tucker, and Sam, but again, there was no response.
He, Koji, Dash, Koichi, and Tommy had already explained the situation to Sorcermon once they brought JP and Zoe into the private medical room. The private medical room was less crowded, and more comfortable for them to rest in. While they were resting, Takuya had been trying to call the others in the real world to see how things were doing, but he became worried when nobody was answering his calls.
"I can't get a hold of Andy, Tucker, Jazz, or Sam…" Takuya said after deciding to give up on getting an answer. He had been trying for a while, but none of them had answered.
"Everything okay?" Dash asked, frowning, holding his own D-Tector.
"No. No one is answering their D-Arcs." Takuya said with a frown as well. "It's like something is either distracting them, or something is cutting off the signal…"
"Great… something's going on in the real world, and something's going on here…" Dash sighed. "We just can't win."
"Tell me about it…" Takuya grumbled. "This just isn't our week, is it?"
Dash then looked at Tommy, who had dozed off and was leaning against Takuya. "Well… if it helps, Tommy looks adorable sleeping on you like that."
Takuya looked down and blushed a bit. "Uh… He does, huh?"
"I should've brought a camera with me." Dash laughed.
"We've all had a long day and night, I'm surprised Tommy stayed awake as long as he did," Koichi chuckled.
Koji smirked. "Well, it looks good on you, Takuya."
Takuya shot Koji a mock glare. "Well, why don't you come and try it then?"
"No thanks, I'd rather not sleep on you too, it would just be weird," Koji retorted.
Takuya looked away. "I can't win, can I?"
"Nope~" Koichi grinned.
Takuya sighed, but he didn't say anymore. He looked over at Zoe and JP, they were sleeping on separate beds, and were also in a magical barrier to keep them from attacking or wandering off if the Tapirmon or Dreammon decided to move them again.
"We should probably get some rest before we go looking for a Tapirmon in the TV Forest later." Takuya suggested.
"Yeah, we don't want to be too tired for that," Koichi agreed.
"I don't like it though. The more time we waste, the stronger Dreammon gets, and the longer we have to leave our friends in their nightmares." Koji frowned.
Dash looked at Koji. "If you want to be tired if we have to fight, then be my guest. I would rather not be tired for a battle if it comes to it. There's a reason why we were encouraged to rest rather than practice just before a big game."
Koji sighed. "I know, I know. I know it's necessary, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
Dash grinned. "Well, then let's get our rest. We'll be needing it."
"Would you like for me to prepare beds for you?" Sorcermon offered.
"I don't need one, but be sure to make a bed for Tommy. Poor guy needs all the comfort he can get," Takuya replied, looking at the sleeping Tommy leaning on him.
Sorcermon smiled at the sight. "I can arrange for that then."
Takuya carefully picked up Tommy, carrying him bridle style, trying not to wake the boy. Sorcermon used some of his magic to make a soft looking white bed. "There, he should be comfortable on this bed."
Takuya set Tommy down gently and smiled. "Thanks. Tommy needs the rest most of all."
"Yeah…" Sorcermon sighed, seeming to agree. "He definitely does. The rest of you need to sleep too."
Takuya nodded before a yawn escaped him. "Yeah… Let's get some sleep, or at least, try to get as much as we can before we get woken up by something going down again…"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Dash agreed.
"We'll take the floor," Koji remarked. "I don't need comfort to sleep."
"Trying to be the tough guy again, Koji?" Koichi chuckled.
Koji tried to hide his slight blush. "I am not…"
Takuya decided to just sleep on the chair. He didn't feel like he deserved much comfort after what happened. Not only did he fight with JP, and lost the Tapirmon, but he also made Tommy upset. The chair was good enough for him as far as he was concerned.
As for Dash, he decided to sleep in a chair as well; in fact, he sacked out as soon as he sat down in his chair again, snoring softly.
Back at Amity Park, Danny, Andy, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz were basically the walking dead, or half dead in Danny's case, when they were at school the next morning. Their Digimon partners were currently asleep in their backpacks, to which the kids envied right now.
"I've never wanted to skip school before in my life… and I'm considering it right now…" Jazz groaned, her hair was a mess.
"Tell me about it…" Tucker moaned. "I barely slept a wink last night…"
"Ugh… I might be a night owl, but even I can't stay up all night like we did last night…" Sam sighed as she yawned.
As for Danny, he was literally almost asleep as he walked, only jolting awake when Tucker nudged him each time.
"And we still didn't get all the ghosts…" Andy grumbled, trying not to nod off himself.
"Hey, you uh…" Dash 2 began when he walked up to them. "You don't look very good."
"Thanks for the news flash, Captain Obvious," Andy grumbled.
"Andy, no antagonizing the football captain," Tucker hissed. "I am not in the mood to be harassed today."
Danny was sensing something off with Dash, but he couldn't tell what it was. Huh… What's going on? Why is Dash giving off the same energy as the copy of Takuya?
"I just wanted to let you know that they called an assembly at school. They even brought the mayor of Amity Park to discuss the ghost invasion," Dash 2 informed.
Danny blinked as he seemed to regain his sense of wakefulness. "Huh? Why would they call in the mayor?"
"It makes sense they would," Jazz said, rubbing her eyes a little. "With the ghost invasion going on, people are scared. And they also want to make sure their children are safe."
"If they wanted to do that, why send us to school the next day?" Andy grumbled. "I'd rather be in bed right now."
"Same here…" Tucker yawned. "I may sleep during the assembly…"
"Come on, let's get some cola or something to wake ourselves up," Sam sighed. "We're going to want to hear what they plan to do about this ghost invasion."
Danny yawned a bit as well. "Might as well… I mean, what's the worst they could do? Bring in our parents?"
Andy and Jazz both slapped their brother upside the head, and glared at him.
"You just tempted fate, bro!" Andy growled.
"Never tempt fate!" Jazz hissed.
Danny blinked. "What? It's not like it could actually happen, right?"
When the students all got to the assembly, the mayor just finished showing everyone the news of the ghost invasion last night, and how much damage they caused. Thankfully, nobody seemed to have caught any of the kids or their Digimon battling.
"Now, I know you kids are scared because ghosts are scary, scary things," The mayor said as he was on the stage, though nobody seemed to have a reaction to his comment.
Danny frowned. "Yeah, we know ghosts are scary, but there's no need for them to treat us like little kids…" He whispered to his brother, sister, and friends. "Besides, I think Digimon are a bit scarier…"
At that, Dorimon, Lopmon, Terriermon, and Salamon somehow heard his comment, popped their heads out of their partner's backpacks, and looked at him.
"You scare us more sometimes," Dorimon whispered.
Danny looked down at the four Digimon. "I wasn't speaking about you… I meant the eviler Digimon…"
"Guys, get back into the backpack, we don't want someone to see you and mistake you for ghosts or something," Jazz hissed.
All four Digimon ducked back into their respective backpacks.
"But I've come to your school, not because this is a great photo opportunity-" The mayor paused to smile for the cameras that, sort of, appeared out of nowhere to take pictures of him. "But because you kids are our future… voters!"
The mayor laughed as if he just told a good joke before more cameras took his picture.
Tucker frowned. "This guy seems to have a bit of a big ego…"
"Unlike you?" Sam snickered. "Mr. Modesty?"
Tucker shot Sam a mock glare. "Says you, Ms. 'I will change the menu to veggie options only'."
Danny cleared his throat. "Um… Guys, the assembly?"
Tucker and Sam turned their attention back to the mayor as he continued to speak.
"I'd like to know where those cameras came from," Andy muttered.
"And now, I'd like to hand this over to Principal Ishiyama, who will explain the new rules of the town," The mayor stated.
Danny blinked. "Okay…? This is new…"
Principal Ishiyama then addressed the student before her. "Due to the continuing and escalating ghost threat, here are the rules that the mayor's security team came up with. One, no students are to have contact with these spirits. Second, students will be escorted to and from school. And three, there is a nine o'clock curfew now in place."
"A curfew?" Sam growled.
"An escort?" Tucker frowned.
"Heh… no contact with these spirits they said…" Andy chuckled as if it was the most ridiculous thing ever. "Where was that rule a few months ago?"
Danny frowned. "And who is the mayor's security team?"
Jazz paled as she realized something. "Oh no…"
Suddenly the entrance to the auditorium opened up, revealing two very familiar people wearing hazmat suits.
"Yes, Danny, they can bring in our parents, and it can happen," Andy grumbled.
Danny smacked his head against the seat in front of him. "Me and my big mouth…"
All four Digimon giggled from inside the backpacks.
"Fear not, young ones! We're here to make sure this school is prepared for any ghost emergency!" Jack shouted into his megaphone.
"You must be cautious!" Maddie spoke up into a megaphone as she walked down the corridor. "At any time one of these ectoplasmic malefactors-"
Maddie stopped when she noticed Danny, Andy, and Jazz. She gave a smile and spoke in her megaphone with no shame whatsoever. "Hi sweeties!"
Danny blushed as he crouched down a little, Andy sunk in his chair, hoping to just melt and disappear, Jazz just froze, not doing anything, pretending she didn't know these people.
Maddie then continued what she was saying. "-Could appear out of nowhere!"
Danny looked at everyone in their group. "Time to sit in the back where no one notice us?"
Sam nodded. "Time to sit in the back where no one can notice us."
Everyone agreed to that. They all stood up and walked to the back of the auditorium.
As soon as they were seated in the back, Lopmon poked his head out of Jazz's backpack. "Why did we move?"
"Because our mother decided to draw attention to us," Andy grumbled.
"Hey, surprised you guys didn't sit back here to begin with," Takuya 2 chuckled, who had already been sitting in the back.
Danny looked at Takuya 2. "Yeah, lucky you…" He said sarcastically If the real Takuya was here, he would probably be just as embarrassed as the rest of us.
"Nah, just thought ahead. You all must be tired if you didn't think about it," Takuya 2 noted, looking specifically at Andy.
"Shut up," Andy crankily said.
Danny chuckled at the reaction. "I think you're losing sleep, bro~"
"Said the half dead boy who was nodding off every 5 minutes before we poured soda down your throat," Andy huffed.
Danny blushed at that. "Hey! I can't help it! I was the one fighting the most!"
"Yeah, and now we're all back here, where it's safe and quiet," Sam spoke up.
"It is much quieter here, I guess not a lot of students like sitting back here," Salamon noted.
Dorimon nodded. "Yeah, but now we can talk more to each other."
"Let's just hope we can get through the rest of this assembly as painless as possible," Jazz grumbled.
"Don't worry, I doubt the Fentons would pay any attention to us way back here," Tucker tried to reassure Jazz.
Jazz sighed. "Tucker, this is my mom and dad we're talking about. They would find a way to embarrass or draw attention to us anyway…"
Lopmon, Terriermon, and Salamon looked at Takuya 2 for a moment, likely sensing he wasn't exactly Takuya.
"How long has Takuya been in the Digital World?" Lopmon asked Takuya 2 seriously.
"A couple of days." Takuya 2 replied honestly. "He is working on helping to solve a crisis in the Digital World."
"Wait, this isn't Takuya?" Sam asked, surprised.
Andy groaned before he explained the whole copy situation to Tucker and Sam. Jazz was blinking.
"Why haven't I heard about this?" Jazz frowned.
"You weren't with us at the time," Danny answered.
Jazz frowned again. "Still, you should have told me regardless. I want to make sure Takuya is alright too, you know."
"Sorry, we just found out before the whole ghost invasion happened, it didn't exactly cross our minds at the time," Andy grumbled.
"Wow… this is like almost a perfect copy. I couldn't even tell he wasn't Takuya," Tucker whistled, impressed.
"Thank Sorcermon and his magic." Takuya 2 replied.
"I have to learn how he did that myself," Terriermon remarked, impressed as well.
Suddenly, Danny's ghost sense went off. The four Digimon shivered as well.
"There's a ghost nearby…" Salamon whispered.
"Oh no… You have got to be kidding… Right now? Here?" Danny whispered. "This is not good…"
Andy frowned as he looked at the stage. Why would a ghost be here…?
Suddenly, a big, black furred, anthropomorphic wolf ghost, wearing green, and some kind of metallic collar around its neck, and had green pupiless eyes, jumped onto the stage out of seemingly nowhere. It growled at Mr. Lancer and Ishiyama, who both screamed. The wolf ghost then let out a howl as everyone began to stand up and scream in panic.
"Okay, I've never seen that ghost before…" Danny frowned.
"And here comes the stampede," Andy groaned.
The students were trying to run to the back where the door was, nearly running over the group in their panic and haste to get away.
Andy and Dorimon were pushed away from the group by the stampede of panicking students.
"Andy, look!" Dorimon gasped.
Andy opened his eyes and saw a glimpse of white and green moving quickly. He got to his feet, trying to see where those other ghosts went. However, before he could, someone snapped from behind him.
"Move it, dork!" Calvin shoved Andy back onto the ground as he kept running.
Dorimon huffed. "That was rude!"
"Forget him, we need to do something," Andy hissed, pushing himself back up.
"Like what? There are too many people around!" Dorimon frowned. "And there are so many ghosts here, I can't stop shivering!"
Dorimon was indeed shaking a lot, but if there were more ghosts, they were very well hidden as the only ghost Andy could see was the wolf one. Dorimon frowned again, realizing he could not digivolve to protect Andy with so many humans around.
"Gah!" Andy heard what sounded like Danny.
"Dann-" Andy gasped before a big furry paw grabbed him suddenly and pinned him to the floor, right next to Danny. They were both pinned by the wolf's hands.
The ghost wolf looked down at them, more curious than hostile. It said a word, but neither boys understood it. Dorimon stared in shock.
Danny looked at the wolf-ghost before a greenish blast zapped the wolf ghost off of him and Andy.
"Get away from my babies!" Maddie shouted as she fired the blast that hit the wolf ghost.
The wolf ghost frowned as he hit the wall, feeling quite shaken up. Maddie had the bazooka pointed at him, a bazooka that really hurt.
"Hey, I was going to do that," Jack pouted.
"Maybe you'll get the next one, sweetie, but I couldn't let our babies get hurt by a ghost," Maddie chuckled before she looked at the twins. "Are you two okay? That big mean ghost didn't hurt you, did it?"
Danny sat up. "No… I don't think so…" He rubbed his neck where he had been grabbed. "Thanks…"
"Yeah, you got the ghost before it did any damage, Mom," Andy agreed, sitting up as well.
Dorimon gave a silent sigh of relief to see his partner and twin brother were alright.
The wolf ghost suddenly turned itself intangible before flying through the wall. The other students that ran out earlier, came back into the auditorium, likely herded by the teachers since being around the Fentons were apparently the safest to be around in this time of crisis.
Danny looked at where the wolf-ghost had gone through the wall. "But that was weird…"
Maddie, seeing that the boys were alright, decided it was time she and Jack go chase after it. "Come on, Jack!"
"Coming!" Jack ran with Maddie to the exit, though Jack ran into the doors.
"It's pull, Jack," Maddie sighed before opening the doors.
"Right, I knew that," Jack sheepishly said.
Andy frowned as he watched them run out. "What was that about? The wolf attacks the assembly, then just runs away?"
"Yeah… That wolf ghost seemed to be frightened." Dorimon noted, having seen the whole thing.
"I thought it was weird too… ghosts don't usually just attack for no reason," Danny remarked. "And that wolf looked scared about something… I think something's going on here…"
"I think you're right, Danny," Andy agreed. "The fact that we had that massive ghost invasion last night, and now a ghost attacking the assembly before running away… we need to find a way to talk to that wolf ghost and see what's going on. Though… it looks like it speaks in a language we're not familiar with…"
Danny nodded. "Yeah. That was an odd language for sure." He then looked down at Dorimon who came over to the twins. "Hey, do Digimon have their own language that is similar to that ghost wolf's language?"
"Uh…" Dorimon blinked. "Not really. We usually speak in a universal language that anyone can understand. For example, that wolf was asking you two 'who are you?' before he was shot by your mom."
Danny blinked. "Hold on, you can understand that wolf ghost?"
"They're Digimon…" Andy realized. "Digital beings, data can understand any language, that's how anyone from any country and culture can program them. They don't distinguish languages."
Danny looked at Dorimon. "Hey… maybe if we run into that wolf ghost again, we can have Dorimon be our translator!"
"Good idea, we can use any of our Digimon partners to translate for us." Andy smiled.
"Huh… didn't realize you didn't understand that ghost," Dorimon chuckled.
"Well, we're not made of data in the real world." Danny pointed out with a chuckle.
"Wait… does this mean… Takuya can understand anybody?" Andy asked, now curious. "I'm going to have to test that later."
Danny blinked. "You know… that is a good question. We should try it out when he gets back."
"For now… let's go find the others in this… chaos, and tell them of the plan," Andy sighed tiredly, looking at the crowd of students.
Both brothers groaned.
Tommy was still sleeping soundly on the bed Sorcermon made for him. He was dreaming about someone, someone he had met a while ago.
Dream Sequence
I was Calumon. I was in the Forest Terminal, walking over to a tall figure, who was covered in shadows. "Master?"
"Something is troubling you, I can sense it," The mysterious figure noted.
I looked down for a moment before looking back up. "What if one day, my friends figure out they can come back to the Digital World? They might get hurt again. Or they could end up like me, stuck as a Digimon…"
The form looked back, still in shadow, but with golden eyes that showed slight emotion. "You shouldn't worry about them too much if they are as strong as you. You are right to worry about them, but they all have their own strengths and can persevere over obstacles like you have."
I remembered what we all had to go through in this very same world a few years ago. It felt like yesterday. I knew they were strong, but I also remembered those times they got hurt too while I was helpless to do anything.
"I don't think I'm very strong, Master… especially now," I sighed.
"You will see that you are, one day." The form said, trying to sound both gentle and stern at the same time. "You feel like it is your fault you couldn't do anything to help them, is that correct?"
I nodded in confirmation.
"Sometimes strength and power isn't as helpful as you believe it to be," The form stated. "You may not have any attacks of your own in that form, but that doesn't mean you're completely useless as a Digimon. You just have to find your own kind of strength, a strength that can help others."
"Do you really think I could have something like that?" I questioned.
The form in shadow chuckled. "You could if you put your mind to it, young one. There are more forms of strength than just power and physical strength, and they are all around us if you look carefully enough. You just can't allow yourself to give up, because if you do, then you really would become useless."
I nodded. "I understand, Master. Thank you."
The form nodded. "I am glad I was able to help settle your soul and mind, young one. If you ever need guidance, you know where to find me."
End Dream Sequence
Tommy started to blink open his groggy eyes. He rubbed his eyes a bit to try to get the grogginess out of them. It took the boy a little bit to realize he was laying on a bed in the medical room. For a second, Tommy feared he had been a victim of the Nightmare Syndrome, and that the others found a cure to wake him up, but then he realized he wasn't lying on a hospital bed, but a normal one.
Tommy sat up, frowning. When did I fall asleep? Why didn't anyone wake me?
Then the boy noticed that Takuya and Dash were sleeping on chairs, while Koji and Koichi were on the floor. Tommy felt his face heating up. Did they… put me on a bed while they slept on… less comfortable things?
Takuya groaned a bit as he stirred, but he didn't wake up.
Koji and Koichi were pretty much sleeping back to back, but they were also holding hands while asleep.
As for Dash, he was snoring slightly with a tiny bit of drool coming from his mouth.
Oh gosh… they did… Tommy blushed, feeling rather silly. He had forgotten how much the others usually spoiled him, even though he was about their age when they first came into the Digital World now. Ugh… I knew I shouldn't have been the first one to fall asleep… I didn't even want to sleep.
Tommy got off of the bed.
"Good morning, Tommy, looks like you were able to get some decent sleep," Sorcermon greeted.
"Sorcermon… why didn't you wake me when everyone else fell asleep? I wanted to find a way to wake up JP and Zoe. I am a doctor here too, you know, even if I am in training." Tommy frowned.
Sorcermon sighed. "Yes, I do know that, but you won't be of much use to your friends if you don't get rest when you need it. Even doctors need rest, and you're no exception, Tommy."
Tommy frowned, then he sighed. "I… I know that… I just… I feel like sleeping is a death sentence right now…"
Tommy then tipped his hat over his eyes. "I'm also embarrassed that I was the only one sleeping on a bed…"
Sorcermon chuckled. "It was the decision of the others. I offered to get them beds as well, but they said no."
"Of course they did…" Tommy grumbled. "What time is it?"
"It is currently 8:09 AM," Sorcermon answered.
"Has there been any progress on the Nightmare Syndrome?" Tommy questioned.
Sorcermon sighed. "Sadly no. We have been trying to find a cure, but to no effect. Whatever is boosting the Nightmare Syndrome is truly frightening if we don't know what is behind it."
"That Dreammon didn't tell us much, just that he's doing it because he wants to… and something about the acknowledgement of his creator. We suspect someone created him," Tommy sighed. "But we know too little to really figure out anything about it."
Sorcermon frowned. "A Digimon called Dreammon… I have to admit, I have never heard of such a Digimon before. If this Dreammon mentioned a creator, then it has to be a false Digimon, or at least, a Digimon created by human hands. Not that it is unusual, but most Digimon created by humans are just remnants of programs used in the human world."
"I guess it doesn't matter now. If we could just get a Tapirmon here, we might be able to figure out what makes the Nightmare Syndrome tick, and find a way to counteract it," Tommy remarked. "If only we could…"
Takuya suddenly fell out of the chair, instantly waking him up.
"Wah!" Takuya groaned as he rubbed his head. "Ouch…"
Tommy and Sorcermon looked at the goggle headed boy.
"Are you okay, Takuya?" Tommy asked in slight concern.
Takuya groaned. "Yeah… I'm fine, save for falling off the chair."
"Okay, good, in that case…" Tommy took a deep breath and let it out. "Next time, you're sleeping on the bed! Clearly sleeping on the chair was bad for you. Your back is likely sore too."
Takuya blinked. "I don't feel sore…" He stood up, trying to prove his point, but he winced. "Okay… bad idea…" He stretched to ease the soreness.
Tommy crossed his arms, giving Takuya a look.
Takuya winced at Tommy's look. "Okay, fine! Next time I'll take the bed!"
"Good." Tommy smirked.
"Jeez, can you be any louder?" Koji grumbled from the floor.
Koichi groaned as he tried to cover his ears with his hat. "So much for some nice quiet sleep…"
"It's already morning," Tommy chuckled. "But maybe you might have gotten better sleep if you had… oh I don't know, slept in actual beds instead of the cold floor?"
Koichi groaned as he sat up. "Maybe… But we were so tired, we just settled for what was available…" He yawned once he was done talking.
"You could've slept on a bed," Tommy grumbled.
"We don't need a bed to sleep," Koji retorted.
"That's not important right now anyways," Takuya spoke up. "We should probably head for the TV Forest to try to catch a Tapirmon now."
"You're going to want to heal up your sore back first," Tommy pointed out.
Takuya grunted. "All I need to do is to stretch. It will go away once I'm done."
"Besides, I rather not wait any longer than necessary to get a Tapirmon and wake up our friends." Koji frowned. "Who knows how badly they've been tormented…"
Koichi frowned as he realized the reason why Koji was in a hurry to wake Zoe and JP up from their nightmares. Koji didn't want anyone to suffer because of a Digimon again, especially when it came to messing with the minds of the people he cared about.
Koichi put a comforting hand on Koji's shoulder. "We'll save them, don't worry, Koji."
Koji grunted. "Whatever. Let's just find a Tapirmon and bring it back here."
Dash grunted as he woke up. "Ugh… What's all the noise about?"
"Hey, glad to see you're awake, Dash. We were just about to leave for the TV Forest to try to catch a Tapirmon," Takuya answered.
"We're going right now?" Dash blinked, trying to rub the grogginess away from his eyes. "What about breakfast?"
Takuya, Dash, Koji, and Koichi's stomachs all growled from that comment. All four of them had Spirit Evolved for one reason or another yesterday, and they were starving. Tommy was the only one who wasn't as hungry due to not Spirit Evolving at all the other day.
Takuya blushed. "Uh… right… Breakfast first I suppose…"
Sorcermon chuckled at the reaction. "I'll have the Burgermon bring in some food."
"We're having burgers in the morning?" Dash asked.
"No. Just because the Digimon handling the food is called Burgermon doesn't mean they only make burgers," Sorcermon chuckled.
Tommy cringed a little. "I'm going to… uh… get some juice."
Takuya looked a bit unsure, but his stomach was growling. "Uh… I guess beggars can't be choosers then…"
Tommy left quite quickly, making Takuya wonder what was up with him. A Burgermon soon came in, pushing a cart that had food on it. The food was covered by lids and containers though.
"One fresh, nutritious breakfast for the Legendary Warriors!" The Burgermon happily announced.
The group began to gather around, curious and each of them starving.
The Burgermon opened the lids, showing the food. Everyone stared in shock and disgust when they saw their 'food' was a bunch of cooked or even, non-cooked, insects. Some of them, Takuya sworn, were once Digimon.
"These are quite the delicacies back in the human world from what I've heard. They're also filled with nutritious vitamins that are very good for humans. I made sure to make it exactly like how the humans did!" Burgermon smiled.
Takuya wasn't sure what to think. "Uh… Thanks…"
"But you know… we're really not that hungry." Koichi smiled politely. "We could eat just fine in the TV Forest."
Sorcermon started backing away.
Burgermon's eyes turned into yellow stars, and the warriors suddenly got the feeling they made a big mistake in trying to refuse the food. "I have stayed up all night making the perfect meal for the Legendary Warriors. This good is top quality, and it should not go to waste. Wouldn't you agree, children?~"
Takuya felt a sweatdrop running down the side of his head. "Y-yeah, we would…" This is awkward...
Even Koji was unsettled, he wasn't even arguing. Dash was trying not to sweat.
Burgermon became friendly again. "Good, now dig in. Make sure you eat every. Single. Bite."
Takuya looked at one of the bugs and gulped. He reached out and took it hesitantly before looking at it. "Uh… Okay… Here we go…" He gulped before putting the bug into his mouth and swallowing it.
The boy could swear he felt the bug moving in his insides. But Burgermon was staring at him. Takuya gave a strained smile. "I-it's… n-not so… bad."
Koichi looked like he wanted to pass out as Dash looked like he wanted to vomit. Koji looked downright disturbed at what he had just seen.
"Now you three, come eat~" Burgermon smiled sweetly.
Swallowing his pride, Koji just grabbed a random bug and stuffed it into his mouth before chewing it and swallowing. He shivered once he was done.
Tommy was waiting outside of the medical room, sipping his cup of juice. After a while, the door opened, and Burgermon was carting out the now empty plates, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Such good children~" Burgermon hummed as she walked down the hallway, thankfully not seeing the one child she missed.
Tommy let out a small sigh of relief before he looked through the door. "Hey… uh…"
Tommy noticed that the others were groaning on the floor. "Are you… all okay?"
"Ugh… I feel like my stomach wants to stop working…" Dash groaned.
"So many bugs…" Koichi moaned.
Koji just lay there, looking quite sick.
Takuya groaned as he held his own stomach. "I swear… if Andy knew about this, he would be laughing his head off… And Sam would say it was good for the planet to eat bugs…"
Tommy felt sorry for them. "Uh… yeah… the Burgermon who works here is… enthusiastic about making 'human food'. Unfortunately, she was only exposed to that one culture that likes to eat bugs."
"Great…" Takuya groaned. He was certain his Spirits were laughing at the irony of the situation.
"On the plus side… at least you're not so hungry anymore… and she is right… as gross as it is, those insects do have a lot of nutrients." Tommy grinned sheepishly.
"Easy for you to say… you didn't eat those bugs…" Koji groaned.
Tommy shivered a little. I had before… ugh… I still feel sick thinking about it. "Do you all need a minute to recover from… your breakfast?"
Takuya groaned. "I think… that would be best…" He swore he felt a bug moving around in his stomach. "Ugh…"
"Yeah… next time… we'll just live off of meat apples…" Dash grumbled.
"Heh, I can agree with you there," Tommy chuckled.
Titanic X: ZAFT: You will find out what is going on soon enough~! :3
DarkFoxKit: And that's what makes the mystery fun; you don't know what's going on and you want to keep reading to find out~
Luna Lillyth: ZAFT: Reader speculation is fine. :3
DarkFoxKit: Hehe, well do you have anymore of those as this goes on?
CT7567Rules: ZAFT: Yes, yes the gang is back together again. :3
DarkFoxKit: Hopefully those who didn't watch Digimon Frontier would still enjoy the whole gang getting back together. We try to take people who didn't watch Digimon Frontier into account too.